Exploring video tools

This week we were tasked with exploring different video tools availabe on computers or phones/tablets.  I was able to explore animoto, pixiclip, wideo, and powtoon.  Unfortunatly, the only app available on my phone was tellagami and it wouldn't download correctly. 

The tool that I found most user friendly and least time consuming was Animoto.  I created a short video using pictures of some of my daughters school/art work from this past school year.  I can definitely see using Animoto during a presentation to parents to show off student work as well as having older students use the tool to create a portfolio of their work throughout the year.  Animoto would also be a good for a display of student work on a school/library/teacher webpage.  As a teacher, it would be great to take pictures throughout the year and then at the end of the year put them into an animoto video to show to the students on one of the last days of school and/or share with the parents.

http://animoto.com/play/exAFB08zgAIjNLEaBwCt8Q

I played around with Pixiclip for a little while but didn't do to much on that site.  I found it hard to draw and make it look like something versus a bunch of squiggly lines.  I can see how it would be useful for creating tutorials and art teachers would be able to use pixiclip to pre-draw something and they can stop the video at certain points to let the kids take it step by step.

Wideo looked really interesting, there were a lot of templates that would be fun to manipulate but I had a hard time getting the site to work.  It kept telling me that I needed get Adobe Flashplayer but I already have the latest version of flashplayer.  Then when I was able to see the templates and I would click edit, it would take me to a preview screen that wanted me to download the mp4 version of the video or share it on social networking sites.  I hadn't made any of the edits to the original template nor could I figure out how, so I did not download or share. 

I really enjoyed Powtoon and think the students would have the most fun with this tool.  There are so many options for templates and icons/pictures to use within the templates.  I do wish there were more pictures to pull from without purchasing a subscription but some really cute things can be done with what is available.  Using powtoon the students can create cards, give facts about a presentation/topic, create their own student resume, or create a video to use for a student "election" like SCA.  One of the templates "Give Advice" would be fun to use at the end of the year for students to come up with advice for next years class.  The students could work together to come up with ideas and it could be something for me to show the next class at the beginning of the following school year.  The facts template could also be used to create a project for almost any of the content areas where students have to present facts. 

http://www.powtoon.com/p/bphgbL5Ew7q/

I can't wait to play around with these tools a little more and hope to include 1-2 of these on my "library website" assignment.

Websites

This week we were tasked with searching different library websites to figure out which things we liked and didn't like and to link two websites that we liked and discuss why we like them.  I tried to search for Elementary School websites since I want to work as an elementary school librarian.  The first website I found that I really like was Salisbury Elementary School Library.  I love the clean layout of this website.  The creator of this website does a good job designing this website with a lot of principles discussed in the textbook.  The website is is not "cluttered" like most of the websites I found.  Everything is streamlined, aesthetically pleasing, and harmonious.  The creator of this website only used a couple different font types and colors.  I like how the type on the page is done in blue but on the side scrollbar the bar is blue and the type is white, these compliment each other very well.

The 2nd site that liked was Elementary School Library.  I think this site is part of a student assignment because it does not specify a school name.  This site has a lot of the same design elements of the first.  It has plenty of white space to keep the website uncluttered.  The colors go well together and the creator of the website does not use too many types of font.  There are a few more colors on this site than the first and at times I don't think the change in color is necessary but I don't feel it distracts too much from the website.

I am going to play around with the weebly website as well as google sites to see which one I would prefer to use but based on the websites I found online, I like the designs of the weebly websites better.

Educational Podcast

The podcast I chose came from the website www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/podcasts/.  It was listed under the Shell Education Podcasts and is titled "Using Poems for Word Study".  I chose this podcast by Dr. Timothy Rasinski because it was interesting to me as a first grade teacher.  In first grade, my main focus is on teaching children to read and I am always looking for ways to help struggling readers.  I have used poetry in the past to help students with concept of word but had never thought about using it with word study.  I am going to check out the collection of poems to use with word study that he referenced in the podcast, I think it will be helpful in my weekly planning.

http://www.shelleducation.com/podcasts/using_poems_for_word_study_podcast.mp3

Audio Messages

This week in Production of Instructional Materials we were tasked with checking out 3 different audio sites that would allow us to add audio to our blogs.  These materials can also be used in the classroom and be added to presentations.  I think students would love these tools when creating a presentation.  A lot of students don't like to speak in front of the classroom so this could be a first step in them presenting to their classmates.  They could create a presentation and use one of these audio tools to "do the talking".  The first tool I checked out was Vocaroo, it seemed really easy to use because you didn't have to sign up for anything but I could not get the microphone on my computer to pick up/record my voice...it was broken sounding and cracking.  After trying to attach my husbands gaming headset with microphone attached and that not working either, I gave up and moved on to the next audio tool.  The 2nd website I went to was AudioPal, I really liked that because it gave me the option to record on the phone.  I quickly recorded a message on the phone, had AudioPal send me the link and uploaded the message to my blog.  I was also able to set how often the message plays (I chose once per visit).  After figuring out AudioPal, I went to the Voki website because I was curious as to how the audio and avatar would work together.  I really liked this option because it gives the "audience" something to look at as well as listen to.  I really think students would enjoy this option the best because they would have fun playing with the avatar options.

Adventures in Infographics!

This week we learned about infographic designs.  It has definitely been an adventure.  After spending hours looking through different infographics online and reading about displaying data in our textbook, I feel like I know a "little" bit about what a good infographic should look like (at least at a quick glance).  After looking through different infographics and reading about how to properly display data I tried my hand at a couple of different infographic template sites.  The first one I tried was whatabout.me.  I could not get that one to work, I could not even get past the 2nd page...much less look at templates. This was disappointing because I was excited about trying that one out.  I then moved on to piktochart.com.  On piktochart I found a couple different templates but the one that caught my eye was the Father's Day infographic.  I decided to create a simple infographic in memory of my Dad for Father's Day.  While using the template I found it hard to manipulate some of the text boxes to move them and/or resize them, some of them would move fine but others did not.  Another thing that I would have liked to have done was add one extra box to the flow chart in the 2nd section of the infographic but was not sure how or if I could do that.  I'm sure if I spend more time playing with the templates I will be able to figure more out.  One think I will remember when teaching students about infographics is to keep the information clear and concise, less is more.  Also, prior to choosing to create the infographic on my Dad I had tried a couple other topics but they were not as easy, so it's better to create an infographic on something you are interested in.

For some reason I am unable to get this to show up as my avatar.  It says the file is too small.  I used pickaface.net to create my avatar.  I have been trying to get this to save as my profile picture/avatar for a week now but it doesn't seem to want to work.  I have another gmail address and it uploaded as my avatar fine but it will not do it on this account.